Hertzeliya's New Tayelet

Hertzeliya is like a second home to me.  It’s where I remember spending long, hot days reading and lazy evenings eating and watching TV with family over the summers.  Its beaches are the ones I frequented as a child, eating Glidat Ariyeh (an Israeli ice cream chain) and splashing in the warm waters of the Mediterranean.  I remember walking to my uncle’s house, which was nearby, to play with my cousins.  I still have images of being woken up by my parents outside my grandmother’s apartment after long car rides from various places.  The nostalgia is almost overwhelming.

But thankfully, nostalgia is not the only sensation I feel when visiting Hertzeliya.  On a recent visit, I had the chance to visit the new tayelet (pedestrian walkway).  It was refreshing and rejuvenating to see the beautiful addition to the already amazing town. Not only is the tayelet attractive and fun, but so are the seemingly endless new restaurants and bars that line it.

Bars along the new tayelet in Hertzeliya

I liked the tayelet so much that I ended up visiting it three times in two days.  After the initial visit, I re-routed my running course so I could run along it and then decided to visit a bar that sat alongside it later that same evening.  It was all perfect… the first visit full of wonderment and excitement at the new construction, the first run along it which felt less rushed and hectic than my runs in busier and more crowded Tel Aviv, and the first experience at a bar on a cool Israeli eve.

Picking a bar wasn’t too difficult—Doug and I spotted our evening destination (whose name I can’t remember!) earlier during our run and chose it because it had lush and comfortable-looking seating.  We snuggled up on a cozy cabana facing the ocean and ordered a couple of beers.  The bar played relaxing, mellow music, a pleasant change from the over-loud club music often played in city bars.  We talked, laughed, and dozed (well, I dozed, anyway), simply enjoying the chance to relax while watching the waves break and crash ashore.

Snuggled up on a cabana

Despite my love for Tel Aviv and the fact that I’m a city-girl at heart, I couldn’t help but feel that I’d be willing to hop on a bus from Tel Aviv to Hertzeliya any day of the week simply to visit the tayelet and frequent the establishments along it.

The Pasta at HaPizza ("The Pizza")

I was hesitant to get pasta while eating out since my absolutely amazing experience at Piccola Pasta (see blog post).  I thought, “Well, no one can do it better than they did… and if I’m going to get pasta at a restaurant in Tel Aviv, I should get it at Piccola Pasta!” 

But during my first visit to HaPizza (51 Bograshov, Tel Aviv), the pasta options were too appealing to deny.  I had to ask the (incredibly sweet and friendly) waitress to make a recommendation between four pasta dishes I was considering! Thankfully, I was with three other people, so I still got to try four pasta dishes (none of us could resist the allure of the restaurant’s pastas, despite the fact that the restaurant’s name means “The Pizza”).

While the pasta wasn’t quite as heavenly as the pasta I got at Piccola Pasta (where I got pasta with hearts of palm, artichoke hearts, asparagus, and garlic topped with cream sauce and parmesan cheese), it certainly held its own.  I ordered the papperdelle with artichoke and a rosé sauce topped with basil and chives.  The tomato-based sauce was perfectly creamy and was complimented beautifully by the gently aromatic basil and mild onion flavor of the chives.  The artichokes gave everything a nice tangy flavor and gave texture to the dish of satisfying homemade papperdelle.

Papperdelle with artichoke, basil, and chives with rosé sauce

Two of the people eating with me also had dishes with homemade papperdelle.  One had ordered a dish with artichokes, zucchini, garlic, butter, basil, and parsley, with a spicy tomato sauce.  The dish was simple and rustic, combining the earthy flavors of zucchini and basil with the sharper flavors of artichoke and garlic.  The butter melted away into the light tomato sauce of the dish, which was not as spicy as expected.  Nevertheless, it gave the dish an added kick.

Papperdelle with artichokes, zucchini, garlic, butter, basil, and parsley with a spicy tomato sauce

The other papperdelle dish included asparagus, tomato-butter, and parmesan.  The sauce was slightly different than the rosé sauce on my pasta—it had a slightly spicer element to it that gave each bite a touch of heat.  The pasta, covered in creamy, warm sauce, had us all stealing bites throughout the meal.

Papperdelle with asparagus, tomato-butter, and parmesan with rosé sauce

The final pasta dish on the table was different than the others: it was comprised of ravioli. Spinach-ricotta ravioli with rosé sauce, to be precise.  Like all the other dishes, it was fantastic.  The homemade raviolis were generouslly filled with spinach and ricotta and had a fulfulling sharp cheesy flavor, tempered by the gentle rosé sauce, in each bite.

Spinach-ricotta ravioli with rosé sauce

We left the restaurant filled by the delicious homemade pasta.  Even so, I couldn’t help but feel that I should have tried the food the restaurant is named for: pizza. And so, my list of restaurants in Tel Aviv to return to grows longer.